This is what we know now:
- Despite some mistakes in the dates on the National Military Intelligence Association website, it appear that NMIA awarded the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award to Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing Aviano, Italy.
- The award was given in 2000 and not 1999 or 1998 as Kirk said in the C-Span video (where he claims he was Intelligence Officer of the Year in 1998 at 13:21 minutes into the video):
- Kirk's story changed from yesterday afternoon to today. Yesterday, his website claimed he won something called the Rufus Taylor Intelligence Unit of the Year Award. He didn't identify the sponsor of the award. Many felt the award was from Naval Intelligence Professionals (NIP) which gives out a Rufus Taylor Award for Naval Intelligence Junior Officers of the Year Award and the Rufus Taylor Award for Naval Intelligence Instruction. However, today, Kirk's senate website explanation page has changed. He now claims the award is not from the Navy or NIP, but from The National Military Intelligence Association. Kirk's current specific claim is described on his page. The notice begins with what a reading from the citation Kirk posted yesterday.
"while serving as aviation intelligence officer for Electronic Attack Squadron Two Zero Nine from 10 April to 6 June 1999…He took charge of four deployed squadron’s intelligence assets and personnel and forged them into an outstanding intelligence shop." It was this work that won the nomination and selection of the United States Navy Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Intelligence Award.
Furthermore, the Post story inaccurately portrays the Rufus Taylor award as a non-Navy award. In fact, the United States Navy Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Intelligence Award is nominated and selected by the U.S. Navy. It is then awarded by the National Military Intelligence Association.
- That National Military Intelligence Association is a 503(c)(6) not-for-profit professional development organization. It provides corporate memberships and seems to be a group that facilitates corporate and academic involvement in the intelligence community.
- The 1999 awards were given at a banquet held on May 21, 1999 at the Hilton Hotel at Mark Center in Alexandria, VA. "The United States Navy Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award" for 1999 went to USS Enterprise Battle Group Intelligence Team. Accepting the award for the USS Enterprise Battle Group Intelligence Team was CDR James R. Everett, III, Enterprise Battle Group N2.
- Kirk also posted a Department of the Navy comm award he received. Carl explained it to me and I posted the award wrote up Carl's explanation here. Both the award and Kirk's comments agree that he was with Electronic Attack Squadron Two Zero Nine at Aviano AFB in Italy during the operative times. Further, I found this description of what the Electronic Attack Squadron TWO ZERO NINE was doing in 1999:
In 1999 the squadron received a 96 hour to prepare to deploy order for Operation ALLIED FORCE (OAF). VAQ-209 deployed in accordance with JCS directive on 16 April 1999 with two aircraft, arriving in Aviano AB, Italy on 17 April via Lajes, Azores. VAQ-209 provided sole maintenance support for VAQ-209, 138, and 140 EA-6B translant aircraft, accompanying the aircraft to Lajes and remaining there until 20 April to support follow-on movement of NAS Whidbey Island Prowlers. VAQ-209 entered combat operations on 17 April 99 and continued until hostilities ended on 21 June 99. The Star Warriors redeployed on 25 June 1999 through RAF Mildenhall, NAS Keflevic (RON), Sonder Stromfjord (Greenland), Goose Bay CFB, and NAS Brunswick (RON), arriving in NAF Washington on 27 June 1999. The squadron completed 150 combat sorties and over 550 combat flight hours with a 98% sortie completion rate and no injuries.
- The 2000 Rufus Taylor Award did in fact go to the Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing Aviano, Italy:
The United States Navy Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award presented to Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing Aviano, Italy:
The Intelligence Division, Electronic Attack Wing, Aviano, Italy, is presented the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award for outstanding meritorious service during Operation ALLIED FORCE from March to June 2000. The Intelligence Division defined the new standard for future Prowler deployments to hot spots around the world. Supporting over 90 aircrew from twelve different USN EA-6B Prowler commands, this ad hoc team of individuals from nine separate commands directly contributed to the success of 717 combat sorties over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Supporting the largest detachment of EA-6B personnel and aircraft in history, the Electronic Attack Wing Intelligence Division selflessly executed their service to country by providing vital tactical intelligence support to Navy EA-6B aircrew for 78 consecutive days of sustained combat operations. Working under the most sparse conditions, the team transformed a condemned Italian Officers' Club and Post Office without electricity or running water into a comprehensive intelligence cell complete with GALE-Light support equipment, Tactical EA-6B Mission Support System (TEAMS) hardware, SIPRNET and Linked Operational Center &endash; Europe (LOCE) connectivity. Unparalleled attention to detail, diligent database cross-checks, superb knowledge of resources, relentless training and dogged professionalism resulted in Prowler Mission Planners always having the information they needed, when they needed it. The team's tireless devotion to duty ensured no Allied aircraft were harmed while operating under Navy EA-6B Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) protection. Intelligence Division Aviano's exceptional professionalism, infectious esprit de corps and exemplary devotion to duty reflected great credit upon themselves and upheld the highest traditions of the Office of Naval Intelligence and the United States Navy.
Since the award was given at the banquet in Virginia on May 7, 2000, it is unlikely it was for service from March to June 2000. So, let's just give them all some benefit of a doubt and assume this award list should read that it was for service from March to June 1999.
- If the above ultimately proves true, it means, in 2000, there was a Rufus Taylor Award (not Intelligence Officer of the Year as Kirk claimed for years) given by NMIA, a 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to bringing private contractors together with the intelligence community. That award was given to the Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing Aviano, Italy where Kirk served from March to June of 1999.
Here's where things get interesting. The award was given to the entire Attack Wing. Kirk was in Squadron Two Zero Nine, a small part of the Attack Wing. There were many squadrons in the Attack Wing. The Rufus Taylor award claims it was for 717 combat sorties. Kirk's citation and the above description of the 1999 activities of Electronic Attack Squadron TWO ZERO NINE talk about 150 combat flights. So, Kirk was a small part of the operation that won the Rufus Taylor Award. He claimed it was his award. I'd bet there are several other men and women in Electronic Attack Squadron TWO ZERO NINE and the Intelligence Division Electronic Attack Wing who would dispute that.
That's what we know. Then, there's what we think. Kirk's a reservist, not regular Navy. There was probably a regular duty officer doing the same job as Kirk in that squadron. While Kirk may have outranked the regular duty officer, one may wonder why a reservist would be considered a major player over the regular duty officer who does the job every day. Further, in 1999, Kirk was already Counsel to the House International Relations Committee. Unlike a typical reservist or regular duty officer, he likely got his pick of assignments. It's possible that Kirk was able to plunk himself down where the action was to further his political career.
As support for his current story, Kirk quotes former commanding officer Captain Clay Fearnow. Fearnow is now in a position to want to keep a Congressman running for Senate happy as the Senior Program Manager at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
Now, Kirk sports a flight suit in campaign pictures to give voters the impression he's a Navy pilot when he's really a passenger in the plane. That, coupled with what we actually know about the award, that he intentionally, and consistently for many years, misrepresented a military award, that he took sole credit for the effort of a large group, that he's now blaming people on his staff rather than taking the blame himself, and that he sent his IL-10 constituents and Illinois voters on a wild goose chase to figure out what the award was and by whom it was awarded without just coming completely clean in the first place, means that Kirk isn't really the sort of person one would want to work with or the sort of person one would want representing him or her in Congress or the Senate.